Helping small business with employee pension and savings programs
Business owners seeking to hire the best and brightest employees compete to offer great work environments, opportunities and benefits. But some small business owners in Canada who would like to offer pension and retirement savings plans to their employees are challenged by the complexity and costs of running such a program.
Already more than 50 per cent of Canadians working in the private sector have some sort of group retirement savings or investing program. Increasing opportunities for the balance requires some changes to Canada’s retirement savings system, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association.
“Business owners and operators recognize the enormous value of helping their employees save for their retirements, but many – particularly small business -- are handcuffed by tax and administrative regulations that make running a program more expensive and time consuming,” says Frank Swedlove, president of the Canadians Life and Health Insurance Association Inc. “We need to make regulatory changes so that company pension plans become less complex and costly to operate. And we need to allow employers to band together in multi-employer plans that pool contributions and achieve efficiencies in cost and operations.”
Changing the law that requires that group pension programs only be offered by a single employer to its employees is one way to help employers. Doing so would allow for the creation of multi-employer pension plans where contributions are pooled and the administrative burden to each individual employer is reduced. Allowing for the creation of such multi-employer pensions plans would also let the self-employed participate in a pension program.
Employers recognize that providing a good company pension or group retirement saving program helps retain existing employees. Often they can improve the firms’ business reputation and help attract capable new employees. And, most importantly, they help give employees peace of mind.
Initiatives are underway to review Canada’s retirement savings programs. Capitalizing on many employers’ desire to help employees save, plus the efficiency of group programs, will play a big role in ensuring a successful system for future generations.
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